1) According to my LinkedIn feed, this is the year advertising officially died. But then again, according to my LinkedIn feed, this is also the year that Advertising saved itself. It’s also the year I learned that data is most definitely the answer. But I also learned that all the data is probably flawed. I also learned that Gary Vaynerchuk is absolutely right and wrong about everything simultaneously.
I could go on all day about my slight obsession with LinkedIn, but I think the biggest trend is that there are so many trends appearing, disappearing, and converging constantly in a never-ending flow of information, ideas, and opinions. The complexity facing marketers around how, what, and why they spend their money is almost paralyzing.
Brands that have a clear, creatively driven strategy will continue to thrive in this environment.
2) With the diversification of media and an increased need for content, advertising and marketing have become real-time endeavors. For lack of a better metaphor, imagine the game becoming more like soccer (or football for the rest of the world) where there’s an overarching strategy going in and a group of people try and execute it. However, those people are empowered to take advantage of situations as they come about. While at the same time there are stoppages in the game that allow for more planning. In this (admittedly convoluted) metaphor, the agencies that will thrive in the future are those can operate in all three phases of the game, the strategic planning, the ability to react and execute instantly while maintaining the craft for bigger set pieces.
Agencies that can adjust to this more real-time model will thrive in the future. Pereira O’Dell has always delivered great creatively driven strategic solutions; over the last 18 months or so, we’ve been trying to figure out ways that break down the barriers between creative, communications strategy, and production to be able to operate more efficiently in the real-time world as well.
3) It should be illegal for you to ask this question to someone in client service, but since the editor of SHOOT has a gun to my head right this minute, I’d say the “Movie Poster Movie” project we’re doing for Adobe. It’s a campaign that invites students to make a movie poster and then Adobe and Zach Braff are going to turn it into a real (short) film. The project is really Adobe’s brand in action. The whole project is about unlocking creativity for everyone involved from the students who participate to the director making the film.
It’s been a fun, exciting and a little crazy process – after all our partners at RSA committed to make a movie with no script – but the final product is going to be amazing and, hopefully, something that makes everyone feel proud.
4) To quote the late, great William Goldman, “No one knows anything.” Now more than ever, worlds – advertising, entertainment, content, journalism – have begun collapsing onto each other. We have celebrities launching branding agencies, athletes launching content companies, tech companies trying to suck up all the oxygen, accountants becoming creatives, agencies creating production companies, production companies going direct to brand. It’s crazy out there. My groundbreaking prediction is that it’s not going to get any simpler in 2019.
5) A personal resolution of mine is to stop looking at my phone so F-ing much. The constant distractions aren’t doing me any favors creatively. Now that I’m a million years old, I’m coming to value the ability to focus and concentrate more and more. I also feel fairly confident in saying that all multi-tasking does is let me do more things half-assed. (I’d also like to stop swearing so much, but I think at this point I’m beyond repair.)